iPads and 'educating' toddlers

Anyone here share an iPad (or other tablet) with their toddlers? What are the best apps you’ve found? Do you find them getting addicted?

We’re toying with getting a 3rd or 4th gen partly for our own use but also to ‘educate” the beast. But at £400+ we’ve got justify it. Personally, I can’t as we already have a laptop and MBP for home use. Having said that, the device WILL get loads of use so it partly comes down to how ‘educational’ it can be for SM jnr.

This isn’t about coming up with a substitute for ‘hands on’ play. We spend loads of times playing, drawing, making stuff etc. So it’s more about getting him attuned to this type of technology AND learning stuff more effectively than via traditional means (if that’s possible).

FTR, I’m not really a fan of Android and Windows Mobile etc, so we’re 95% set on the iPad vs any other option.

There’s an app called “Maths” precedeeded by age (Maths 4-6 for example) which is excellent. You have to pay about £4 for it (there is a free sample) but its very very good and includes counting, colours shapes,sizes, letters and of course maths.

Its very intuitive, for example, you have to drag the right size t shirt onto the right sized person, or put all the blue starts in a box etc. and uses spoken instructions so its easy for Jnr.

Cant remember the names of the apps but our 2 year old loves counting games, a building diggers game and a few puzzle games. All are educational. She is worryingly good with the ipad in general, at 18 months she could unlock it, find her games and play them. We don’t let her on it for too long but I think its important that they get used to these sort of things as so much of everyday life uses some kind of technology.

Once introduced its all they will want to play with for a while.
There are some good interactive books and some maths and reading apps… my 4 year old girl likes the cooking apps where you make cakes, cookies, donuts. Just really restrict the time they spend on it and works well as a treat for good behaviour.. ie.. every time they do something good or actually do something you ask then they earn 5 mins iPad time.
Don’t let them become too obsessed with it and neglect their real world toys and books.

There is a setting to lock it in certain apps and disable parts of the screen. Really handy.

Really? That sounds pretty handy. Can you set it up so only X, Y and Z apps can be launched? The beast likes getting his hands on my iPhone but also has a habit of accidentally accessing everything from texts to emails to calls to whatever else he can.

Re games, I’d prefer to really limit those at this stage as I’d like him to ‘accept’ the device is for learning/exploring/creating instead of getting addicted to mindless (ahem) stuff 🙂 I know some kids who played ‘traditionally’ until being introduced to tablets at around age 5yrs – and now that’s pretty much all they want to play with. Parents have a right scrap trying to limit sessions.

I don’t see much benefit in getting young children used to using computers or tablets. When the time comes that they need to use them, I think it will take them about 5 minutes to get up to speed! The important thing is learning to be curious about stuff, rather than specific technology.
My gut feeling is that they get more benefit from playing with physical stuff at that age; paper, pens, Lego, cars, books, dolls, models, etc, and the superficially attractive shiny screen doesn’t add much to that.

My gut feeling is that they get more benefit from playing with physical stuff at that age; paper, pens, Lego, cars, books, dolls, models, etc, and the superficially attractive shiny screen doesn’t add much to that.

My 2year old loves watching anything to do with pirates on you-tube but is much more at home rumaging through daddys tool box and using (in his own way) and naming the tools – proud as! Its a great age pre-school 🙂

My Daughter will be 3 in May, she has been working an ipad quite happily since before her first birthday, firstly will scrolling through pictures etc, no she can find iplayer, find all her favourite programmes, download programs, play her “games” which are all ABC / Maths/ Puzzles / drawing etc, really good tool for learning in addition to traditional games / stories / reading / drawing.
We have started to limit her using it just before bed though as it was getting difficult to get her to sleep properly.
That was our own fault though trying to get No2 sorted sometimes it became easier to let her watch Peppa pig etc while we got her brother fed and down.
We have since got things more organised and spend the time before bed reading stories instead (Which is a lot calmer and nicer all round)

I`d recommend it, but I do need to find a way of locking it down / restricting access

Not a fan of Android though. Nor lending my phone unsupervised as he keeps launching stuff he shouldn’t.

Had thought of getting a second hand iPod Touch (just for SM jnr) but TBH the screen’s a bit small. iPad Mini would be on the radar if it had retina. Hence iPad 3/4 seems the way to go. Albeit a tad too costly for my liking.

I don’t see much benefit in getting young children used to using computers or tablets. When the time comes that they need to use them, I think it will take them about 5 minutes to get up to speed!

I’d agree with this, even as a complete nerd, there’s no positive benefit to learning to use an interface. However there are lots of fun things to do with it, so I wouldn’t let that stop you letting them play with it. It is a rich and interesting thing to do, is fun to watch them playing with things. I built my daughter her own game for my phone (Poke that Goat) and she loves playing with and around it, making up stories about who each goat belongs to, that sort of thing. Like everything else, I think parental supervision and taking part in things with them is important, but that is true of most things with kids, not just technology.

Not a fan of Android though. Nor lending my phone unsupervised as he keeps launching stuff he shouldn’t.

Kid mode – lock them out of everything except particular apps. Various apps for Android, surely something for iOS?

And games are education. Hand/eye coordination, mental ability etc. Education isn’t just about learning the names of letters and adding up after all.

I’m a massive Android fan, but I think there are more and nicer apps for iOS in various areas that are good for kids – painting, music making, that sort of thing, although iOS is so blooming expensive both for the device and the apps.